Best and worst lip-syncers at Motown

[loganjlr]

Which artists do you think were the best at putting on the act of lip-syncing a song during television performances? Who do you think struggled with the concept of lip-syncing compared to their live vocal performances?

Since lip-syncing was prevalent in television and later -- certain pop acts -- I'm always fascinated on the subtle differences you find based on a performer's live performance compared to their lip synced performances.

Mariah Carey tries to exude a sexier, more model-like persona when lip-syncing a lot of her songs, although she sometimes has an issue with timing and actually breathing in time to give people the illusion during big notes. In live performances she's much more "in her head" and focused on the next note in front of her.

I've also been watching a few Supremes television performances and noticed Cindy Birdsong usually hits the mark pretty well, but her mouth doesn't always form the word of the last syllable. Mary Wilson, like on Soul Train with "He's My Man" exudes tons of emotion, but sometimes misses the mark with the way her mouth forms her syllables to the studio track.

The methods of such performances also fascinate me: while many artists quite literally "lip" silently to the lyrics, others either sing the song very softly to mimic the mouth movements or [[if you're Madonna and Britney) sing behind the backing track during heavier numbers even when the crowd can't hear you.